We're now into the true cycling season, and more than ever before, Strava has become a theatre for pro cyclists. Major rides reverberate throughout cycling social media and into the wider cycling press.
We decided to take a deep dive into the Strava activities of some of the bigger names of the men's peloton, alongside some select Strava super users.
We chose 10 riders who were a combination of major WorldTour riders and those riders who are very active on Strava. Our list isn't exhaustive in terms of the most distance or elevation across all pros, as Strava does not have an easy API-style interface to extract key data, so our leaderboards are the results of manual checks.
Strava distance leaderboard
The first 75 days of 2026 in numbers
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Jumping out from our initial batch, Michał Kwiatkowski (Ineos Grenadiers) stood out for having ridden 7,833.3km in the first 75 days of 2026, more than any other rider in a Velora analysis of 10 elite men's accounts on Strava. During that time, he has logged 75 rides in 75 days, alongside six running activities and seven gym workouts. In pure cycling terms he has averaged 731.1km per week between January 1 and March 16.
Thymen Arensman, another pro Strava superuser, logged the second-largest distance in our group of 10, clocking 7,740.2 km across 70 activities.
The broader comparison offers a window into how differently top professionals structure their early-season preparation. Some riders, like Kwiatkowski, appear on Strava almost daily. Others, like Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), have uploaded just 11 activities in the same period.
Strava time leaderboard
The most time spent riding so far in 2026
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A caveat before the numbers: this is a sample, not a census. It covers 10 riders whose Strava data is publicly visible and measurable. It omits turbo sessions, gym work, private rides and anything a rider chose not to upload. What follows is what these riders chose to show.
The distance leaderboard tells one story. The elevation leaderboard tells a different one. Kwiatkowski leads distance by a comfortable margin but sits sixth in climbing – clearly a fan of flatter miles. Thymen Arensman tops the elevation leaderboard with 138,980m of climbing logged in 2026 so far. Matteo Jorgenson (Visma | Lease a Bike), third by distance, sits close behind on 134,874m, while Ben O'Connor and Sepp Kuss round out the top four climbers in the group.
Jorgenson leads daily average hours when measured across all 75 calendar days, at 3.29 hours per day.
Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull–Bora–Hansgrohe) actually owns the biggest climbing day in the dataset. His longest ride – a 211km training epic on Mount Teide – included a mammoth 5,316m of elevation gain in 7 hours 5 minutes.
Sepp Kuss runs close behind. On March 1 he logged a 200.7km ride with 5,020m of climbing in 6 hours 37 minutes, equivalent to ascending Mont Ventoux from Bédoin more than three times.
The steady engines and the selective uploaders
Pidcock is not a regular uploader, but what he does upload is consistently vertical. His climbing density, the ratio of elevation metres to distance covered, leads the group at 23.1m per kilometre. Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers), by contrast, averaged 17.4 m/km, a figure notably high given Ganna's reputation as a flat-ground time trial specialist. His biggest single ride, a 190.2km effort on January 11 with 4,620m of climbing, was titled "Egan non c'è l'ho fatta niente" (roughly: "Egan, I just couldn't manage it") – a day spent trying to keep up with Bernal in the Colombian mountains.
Jorgenson slots second in climbing density at 18.2m/km, combining that terrain hardness with far higher overall volume than Pidcock or Ganna. Over 75 days, that adds up to one of the most complete early-season profiles in the group: second in elevation, first in total riding hours, and third in overall distance.
Strava elevation leaderboard
The most climbing metres so far in 2026
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Remco Evenepoel is lower in climbing density at 12.1m/km, though his data window reflects only 26 activities across six weeks.
Then there is Pogačar. His 11 uploads make him the lightest poster in the group, yet he owns the longest single ride of anyone in the group: 228.7km with 4,052m of climbing on February 18, titled "Now that is what i call coffee ride." His average ride length is 164.1km, the highest of any rider tracked, and his average session lasts 4 hours 40 minutes.
His early-season Strava profile attracted wider scrutiny in February when he inadvertently published full power data for a training ride from Valencia to Calpe. Analysis of that file suggested a functional threshold power around 450 watts at 65kg, roughly 6.9 W/kg. During one 46-minute uninterrupted section, he averaged 334w (5.1 W/kg) at a heart rate of 140–150 bpm. The power data alone provides a reason for the interest in his 11 uploads.
Wout van Aert (Visma | Lease a Bike) sits sixth by distance at 6,794.2 km. His longest ride, 205.02km, was Strade Bianche on March 7, confirming that his road season is now well underway after illness disrupted his opening weekend. Van Aert's average session duration of 3 hours 13 minutes and climbing density of 15.3 m/km suggest a balanced early-season block rather than one skewed toward mountains or flat miles, and also reflective of his steady recovery.
The patterns across the 75 days show Arensman leading the group in total elevation, Jorgenson logging the most riding hours, Evenepoel recording the biggest single climbing day, and Kwiatkowski topping the distance leaderboard through consistency.
Cover image credit: Antonio Baixauli
